Volunteer trainees are on mission to bring San Juan history to life

Jan. 28, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Conan Zimmerman of Irvine first visited Mission San Juan Capistrano as a fourth-grader. The now-36-year-old aspiring docent is pictured talking about the mission's historic bells during a training presentation. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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Mission San Juan Capistrano docent Helen Gavin leads a group of trainees through a passage in the south wing, the oldest, most intact part of the mission. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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Docent in training Kerry Ferguson of San Juan Capistrano tries her tour-guide skills on fellow trainees. Docent trainer Helen Gavin, standing beside Ferguson, listens for accuracy and quality of the presentation. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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San Clemente resident Erin Vogtman listens as docent trainers discuss the history of the mission. Vogtman, a history buff originally from Wisconsin, says she hasn't been out West long and doesn't know much of California's history. But she said "mission life is fascinating, and I'm very excited that I'll be teaching kids all about it." DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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Mission San Juan Capistrano docent Michelle Kelly, in the distinctive garb of full-fledged mission tour guides, answers a question from a member of her group. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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Peg Hyland of Irvine, an aspiring docent who was a history major in college, practices a presentation outside Serra Chapel in the mission cemetery. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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Docent trainee Erin Vogtman fields a question from a fellow trainee after a practice presentation about life at Mission San Juan Capistrano. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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Docent in training Kaaron Carver of Mission Viejo is a retired teacher from Sonoma who says she's most interested in the indigenous people who were living in the San Juan Capistrano area when the Spanish first came to California. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

Conan Zimmerman of Irvine first visited Mission San Juan Capistrano as a fourth-grader. The now-36-year-old aspiring docent is pictured talking about the mission's historic bells during a training presentation.DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

Tour touches

Here are a few things about Mission San Juan Capistrano that you might hear on a docent-guided tour:

• At more than 200 feet, the Great Stone Church once was the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

• The mission bells ring only a few times a year now, but they used to be rung several times a day to signal the time, church services, even deaths – with different ringing styles for men and women.

• To inter 2,000 people in the mission cemetery, they were buried four deep.

Becoming a docent

Training fees are $25 per person, payable the second training session. The fee covers materials and the first year's membership dues in the Mission San Juan Capistrano Docent Society.

The minimum annual service requirement is 12 tours.

To learn more, call 949-234-1322.

Conan Zimmerman first visited Mission San Juan Capistrano with his fourth-grade class, and he never forgot the experience. "It just stuck with me," he said.

So when he returned three weeks ago to begin training as an aspiring docent, he couldn't wait to get started.

Along with about 20 other volunteer trainees, Zimmerman, 36, of Irvine walked the grounds with docent trainer Helen Gavin, practicing a few minutes for a mock presentation of what mission life was like before California was a state. Standing in front of the ruins of the Great Stone Church, Zimmerman discussed the structure's collapse in an 1812 earthquake that killed 40 people during a morning service.

He gestured toward the mission's famed bells, limed up four in a row in masonry niches. "The bells in San Juan were Orange County's original alarm clock," alerting people to the time, Zimmerman announced to his fellow trainees.

"The labor used to build the mission is what interests me most – the economics of it all," he said later. "This was Orange County's first industrial park. How did they start it, maintain it, trade things? What were the jobs like, and the social part too?"

Docent director Mary Susa of Irvine has been a volunteer since 1985. She says a big part of Mission San Juan Capistrano's docent program is the partnership with area schools that send fourth-grade field trips as part of California history studies. Susa says she gave about 104 tours last year.

Peg Hyland, a retiree from Boeing, says she was a history major in college and is looking forward to getting back to it after many years. Alongside the Serra Chapel in the mission's cemetery, she presented a mock talk about the methods for burying people in the small, now-walled burial ground. Some 2,000 people are buried in an area a little larger than a basketball court.

Susa said there are currently 70 working docents who do tours about mission life, the gardens, architecture, products produced by the mission for trade, construction methods, the life of Father Junipero Serra and the culture of the area's indigenous people.

Trainees meet in half-day sessions once a week for a month. Classroom time is mixed with walking the mission to see it for themselves. After the class, trainees are assigned a mentor whom they shadow on tours. Before being approved for docent duty, hopefuls must present a tour to their mentors.

Docents are awarded a hat in the style of mission-era Spanish equestrians. They are not paid, but there is a bonus – docents can walk in San Juan Capistrano's annual Swallows Day Parade.

"We always have a goal of getting 50 docents to walk in the Swallows Day Parade, and we've come close but never made it," Susa said. "But I think we might make it this year."

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